Broncos HC Sean Payton Urged to 'Put His Stamp' on Huge Draft Decision

The Denver Broncos are a team on the rise. Oddsmakers are 'buying' (as opposed to selling) the 2025 Broncos, and they're garnering relative confidence from the national press.

The latest evidence comes from Sports Illustrated's Conor Orr, who placed the Broncos at No. 13 in his post-free agency power rankings and pounded the table for Sean Payton to add another weapon to Bo Nix's arsenal in the first round.

"Give me Omarion Hampton, Tyler Warren or Colston Loveland in Sean Payton’s offense and let the Bo Nix hype train get out of control," Orr wrote of the Broncos. "Payton has always thought differently when it comes to the draft, certainly as the selection of Nix shows. Now we get to see him put his stamp on the playmaker position he’s been talking about all offseason."

Any of those three offensive prospects would be a massive upgrade for the Broncos at pick No. 20 overall. Warren and Loveland were heavily mocked to the Broncos the first half of the offseason, while Hampton has easily been the favorite since, say, the NFL Combine.

While it's a guarantee the Broncos will continue to build the nest around Nix in this draft, selecting an offensive weapon in the first round is not. This draft class is replete with tight end and running back talent up and down the board, which means the Broncos can afford to go a different direction early.

It would still be somewhat of a surprise if Denver didn't take one of those three prospects — if they're on the board — at pick 20, but there are alternative paths the team could take. In the wake of the Philadelphia Eagles' impressive shellacking of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl, defensive line could very well be in play in Round 1 for Denver.

Prospects like Oregon's Derrick Harmon or Ole Miss' Walter Nolen could be on the table for Denver. Or, if the Broncos do take one of those aforementioned playmakers, they could target a defensive lineman like Toledo's Darius Alexander in Round 2, again, depending on availability.

The NFL draft is a crapshoot and there's no way to perfectly predict how the board is going to fall. But it's safe to assume that the Broncos will come out of the first two days of the draft relatively loaded for bear on this hunt, flooding the roster with additional top-100 difference-makers to make Payton's job that much easier in 2025.

As one of last season's playoff teams, the Broncos stay static relative to Orr's power rankings. While the Broncos had a tremendous free-agency period, it's hard to say how much the signings of safety Talanoa Hufanga, linebacker Dre Greenlaw, and tight end Evan Engram impacted Orr's arithmetic.